Ever since I was a little kid, I had always wanted to travel around the world. In high school, I had the opportunity to go on a trip during spring break to Costa Rica. I was extremely excited and thought that this was something I could not pass up. As my first time abroad in a Spanish-speaking country was wrapping up, I knew I wanted more. I had indeed gotten the travel bug, and I knew for sure that my next stop abroad would be Spain.

Fast forward to Summer 2022, and my dream was finally coming true. during the Spring semester I attended an information session for the UMass Salamanca Summer Program and knew that this was the program for me. Originally when I was searching for an abroad program to do for my Spanish major, I wanted to do a program that was not too long, and if I ended up enjoying it, I would potentially do another program for a longer duration, like a semester long program. Since the Salamanca program is only 1 month, it was an ideal choice for me and what I wanted at the time.